Anomaly-induced dynamical refringence in strong-field QED

Abstract

We investigate the impact of the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly on the nonequilibrium evolution of strong-field quantum electrodynamics (QED) using real-time lattice gauge theory techniques. For field strengths exceeding the Schwinger limit for pair production, we encounter a highly absorptive medium with anomaly-induced dynamical refractive properties. In contrast to earlier expectations based on equilibrium properties, where net anomalous effects vanish because of the trivial vacuum structure, we find that out-of-equilibrium conditions can have dramatic consequences for the presence of quantum currents with distinctive macroscopic signatures. We observe an intriguing tracking behavior, where the system spends longest times near collinear field configurations with maximum anomalous current. Apart from the potential relevance of our findings for future laser experiments, similar phenomena related to the chiral magnetic effect are expected to play an important role for strong QED fields during initial stages of heavy-ion collision experiments.

5 pages, 4 figures, references added

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Cited by in corpus (20)

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• QCD thermalization: Ab initio approaches and interdisciplinary connections
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• Experimental searches for the chiral magnetic effect in heavy-ion collisions
• Quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories using Wilson fermions
• Non-equilibrium study of the Chiral Magnetic Effect from real-time simulations with dynamical fermions
• Chiral magnetic effect and anomalous transport from real-time lattice simulations
• Chiral instabilities & the onset of chiral turbulence in QED plasmas
• Scalable cold-atom quantum simulator for two-dimensional QED
• Simulations of relativistic-quantum plasmas using real-time lattice scalar QED
• Plasma dynamics at the Schwinger limit and beyond
• Collisional strong-field QED kinetic equations from first principles
• Schwinger pair production and string breaking in non-Abelian gauge theory from real-time lattice improved Hamiltonians
• Real-time lattice gauge theory actions: unitarity, convergence, and path integral contour deformations
• Breaking of adiabatic invariance in the creation of particles by electromagnetic fields
• Multi-channel Interference in Nonperturbative Multiphoton Pair Production by Gamma Rays Colliding
• Simulating chiral magnetic effect and anomalous transport phenomena in the pre-equilibrium stages of heavy-ion collisions
• Nonequilibrium axial charge production in expanding glasma flux tubes
• Non-cancellation of the parity anomaly in the strong-field regime of QED${}_{2+1}$
• Chiral Magnetic Effect in the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism